


Dimensions

by Murtagh



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga), Yu-gi-Oh! Dark Side of Dimensions
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Ceremonial Duel, Post-Dark Side Of Dimensions, Prideshipping, all tags start with a p
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-29 18:02:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17812793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murtagh/pseuds/Murtagh
Summary: At the edge of his vision, he could still see the edges of his coat flickering and forming in their new surroundings, making him real. His focus was on something else though. It was on the light coming from the end of the throne room, on the person who’s silhouette he knew from memory.[Set just after the end of DSOD.]





	Dimensions

**Author's Note:**

> These two have inspired me to write again.

At the edge of his vision, he could still see the edges of his coat flickering and forming in their new surroundings, making him real. His focus was on something else though. It was on the light coming from the end of the throne room, on the person who’s silhouette he knew from memory. Whom he’d formed from memory in his simulations, bringing him into existence. For a fleeting moment he wasn’t sure if this was real. What was reality anyway?

It had been easy to walk through the palace gates and up to the throne room, no one had stopped him. He’d felt out of place only briefly, comparing his 21th century gear with the clothes of those around him. But his aura and his face must have seemed familiar enough for those responsible for guarding this place. It did pay off to be a reincarnation after all.

He realised that he was approaching the throne at a slower pace now, still as determined as before, but a bit more cautious. There was a soft tingle in his body which he wasn’t sure how to place. It could still be the integration and disintegration of his body, or maybe nerves. But why would he be nervous. He was never nervous. And this was the moment he had been working towards for the longest time. Maybe he wanted to draw it out, to savour it.

The light was so bright that it was hard to make out the exact features of the man on the throne. He had stood up and even made a step forward. He was slowly closing in on the distance between them, it was vanishing, like little bits of his coat. He didn’t realise he was holding his breath for this final step, into the space where the light’s angle was now allowing him to see the other’s face.

 

‘Seto Kaiba.’

There was a smile in the pharaoh’s voice. Releasing his breath, Seto looked up into his dark purple eyes that were full of curiosity. The pharaoh took two deliberate steps down from his dais and came closer to Seto, forcing him to follow the man’s face with his eyes.

‘Have you really travelled through dimensions and time to find me?’ 

‘To duel you.’

‘You risked your life so you might duel a ghost?’

Everything between them was a challenge, even this greeting seemed to be one. ‘Technology from KaibaCorp never fails.’ 

‘But how did you know I would be here?’

‘You were there when we fought against Diva. And you saved Jonouchi. I knew you weren’t gone.’ 

‘You never stopped believing,’

‘Just like Yugi said, yes.’ A laugh escaped him. ‘One might say it is surprising that Yugi stopped believing sooner than I did.’

‘Well, he didn’t stop believing that I existed. He just believes that I have passed on, that I have found my peace.’

‘So you’re suggesting I have disturbed your peace.’ Rising to a challenge was easy to Seto. He stood a little straighter on entering this familiar terrain, all uneasiness and potential nervousness forgotten. 

‘I have not yet determined whether you are a disturbance or not, Seto. It depends on your reasons for being here.’ A sly smile played around the pharaoh’s lips and he looked directly into Seto’s eyes. The intensity made him look up and around, suddenly noticing how there was no one but them in the hall. The sounds of retreating footsteps must have escaped his notice.

‘I am here to duel you, and to beat you. To show you once and for all who’s the greatest duellist.’ The reason was easy to lay out, it had been playing in his mind and holograms for the past years.

‘And then you’ll go back to your time? Do you really think you’ll be satisfied with beating me once? And what if you can’t? I do not think this is the reason you came here, Kaiba.’

Seto narrowed his eyes at the change in address. It felt even more like a duel than before, distancing themselves so they were mere opponents in a duel. A thought struck Seto.

‘This isn’t just the past though, is it? More like another dimension where you could return to living 1000BC and at the same time be the one you were when you were in Domino. And what happens here won’t affect the future. Time goes on in my time, as it does here.’ He had spent several late nights over his plans and computers, trying to figure out how to come to this place, that existed and yet did not. ‘Do the people here know who you are? Are they who they used to be?’ He frowned. ‘Is that Priest Seto here?’ Seto looked around, suddenly both eager and scared to see someone who might look just like him.

 

When he looked at Atem again, the other man was staring at him with wondering eyes. There was some sadness in them, too. ‘I had hoped you might explain to me what this place was.’

That startled Seto. ‘Is this not your realm and time?’

The pharaoh pondered this. ‘You would suppose it is, wouldn’t you? And yet it is different from what I had imagined afterlife to be like. Maybe I’ve not fully moved on? Maybe I am in the past but with my knowledge of the future? Everyone here seems familiar and yet different. There is peace here now which seems to resemble afterlife. But does that mean it is? Would you be able to go into a dimension beyond death with your technology?’

The pharaoh looked pensive, melancholy. Seto was surprised at seeing those emotions. They were a reassurance for him that the pharaoh was really here. Seto had briefly been afraid that he was in one of his newest holograms, only imaging finding the pharaoh. But this. He could never have imagined the pharaoh having doubts. He had always been superior to him. Or had his hologram become autonomous? Had he developed Atem as an AI in order to finally face him again? Was he caught up in his own imagination, never having left his KC station? His head swam. The calculations had been exact, he had been sure he’d go to that parallel place that was both antiquity and yet not. He had been so sure.

 

‘Are you okay?’ Atem’s voice shook him out of his reverie and he looked up again, startled. Had he looked as lost as he’d felt?

‘Are you...real?’ He asked in a whisper. He received loud laughter in return. So, his creation was turning on him now?

‘I’m as real as someone who’s lived for more than 3,000 years, most of that time being trapped in a puzzle and sharing a body can be.’

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ There was a hint of anger in Seto’s voice, feeling mocked by this ... what was he?

‘It’s not your regular kind of real, Seto Kaiba. In the whole time you’ve known me, I’ve never been a regular real person. But you must know that. And I think when it comes down to it, you aren’t particularly real at the moment, either.’ He had taken a step back again and sat down on the first step of his dais. He looked unfazed again, full of the self-assurance and wisdom Seto had always looked up to. He still felt like his mind was playing tricks on him. 

‘What I really mean is, am I making you up, are you just a vision of the man I was looking for - or are you you?’

‘That’s quite the insult, Seto Kaiba, to suggest you’d made me up. I know you believe you’re the most brilliant person on earth and can create visions as real as life, but there’s limits to that. As you should have learned when you met Yugi and me.’ 

‘Who’s insulting whom now?’ He must be real then, mustn’t he? He’d almost said as much.

‘I had the impression you quite enjoyed taking lessons from me.’ Seto could only answer the pharaoh’s clever smile with a barked laugh. ‘Ha. You know that my AIs say the same, don’t you?’

The pharaoh rose again, building himself up in front of Seto. ‘If you think I’m merely one of your AIs, why are you here?’ He was the one to turn angry now.

‘I thought we were trying to establish where ‘here’ was,’ Seto shot back, feeling frustration rise in him.

‘And the only way to do so is by suggesting I was an imagination?’ 

‘I start to be convinced you are not, yet I couldn’t be sure. I’ve been...’ seeing you every day, created all kinds of places, digital replica of you,... but he couldn’t say that, couldn’t show the weakness this admission would reveal.

‘You have been what?’ Atem had cocked an eyebrow and was now gazing at him questioningly.

‘I have ... created digital worlds to duel in that appear as real as reality. So, this might have been one.’

‘But you also designed a machine to travel through dimensions to get here, so why would you think you were in a hologram? Did the all-knowing Seto Kaiba doubt his own abilities?’ The pharaoh’s expression had changed to one of amusement now, which didn’t particularly help settling Seto’s anger and frustration. Because Atem was right. As always, the other man knew more than him, was one step ahead. His posture fell.

‘You know you’re right and you also know I won’t say it. Even so, let’s get back to business.’ The pharaoh laughed again, a familiar sound and yet it contained a different note. One of honest amusement.

‘Suppose we are in a dimension that you arrived in after you duelled Yugi. You’ve been able to travel through dimensions to help him and his friends, once again. Why are you still here? If you say it’s not like you imagined it would be.’ Atem had seemed almighty when he had defeated everyone he had ever faced. Why was he not where he wanted to be?

‘This appears to be my afterlife and I suppose I have made peace with that. There is no great nothingness for me, like some religions believe.’ He smiled confidently now. ‘And you seem to have managed to travel past death to find me.’ 

_To find me._ The words echoed in Seto’s mind. He knew that had been his one and only aim for the past year. But suddenly, a thought struck him.

‘What will happen after I beat you then?’ He didn’t like the uncertainty that was audible in his voice but he needed to know, was abruptly aware that he had almost reached his aim and didn’t know what would follow. He could build more spaceships and further technology, see Mokuba grow up. But the drive would be gone. His drive had been finding the pharaoh. Duelling him, beating him once and for all.

‘I suppose that depends on why you came here.’ Seto looked at the pharaoh with startled eyes. 

‘Isn’t it obvious? I think I’ve said it a million times, in all dimensions: to duel you.’

‘Do you really think that is all? Did you cross dimensions and go past death for a duel?’ Atem’s voice was steady and factual, yet he looked at Seto enquiringly. There had never been any doubt that this was the reason. Or was it?

‘Yes.’ What other reason could there be? Showing everyone how great his technology was? Ha, he’d achieved that offhandedly.

‘I think there is another reason and we both know it.’ 

‘What do you mean?’ Seto felt slightly unsettled.

‘Maybe we’ll find out after our duel.’ Atem had the audacity to wink at him, then he took a step back and lifted his left arm, a duel disk parallel to Seto’s own materialising on his arm. He took his deck out of his pocket and put it in. 

‘Are you ready to find out?’

‘I think what you meant is: are YOU ready to lose?’ Seto asked and lifted his own arm up, putting his deck into the duel disk.

‘Let’s duel.’

.

He had expected that this duel would feel like the duel of his life, and he was proven right. They stayed within their surroundings that already seemed other-worldly to Seto, yet the holograms seemed even more vivid than in his last projection. But it wasn’t only the cards that seemed to be on the field. There was a sense of their shared memories floating around them, not quite visible but still there. Seto remembered how a version of Atem had trapped him inside the world of Duel Monsters, how he had later been in a coma and had put together the shattered pieces of his heart. Atem had changed him then, not only through their continued rivalry but in the most direct sense. He had changed the make-up of his character. Seeing all these visions flicker around them, from the very first shadow game to the Battle City finals, it felt both surprising and natural to witness that shared history while they duelled. Both seemed to be caught up in the memories, neither speaking apart from activating trap cards and summoning monsters. It really was a different duel. Different from what he had imagined.

‘What do you think, Kaiba, will you be able to beat me?’, Atem mocked him when his life points hit 500. The pharaoh still had 1,500 but looked as though he had seen better days, the same as his hurt Dark Magician.

‘This duel is far from over,’ he shot back, drawing another card and smiling at the spell card he had just drawn. When activated at the moment of attack, it would draw twice the life points drawn from him from his opponent. It would have been even better if he was still leading, but he was sure he could bring it to good use. There was an image from the duel he’d fought alongside Yugi only a couple of weeks ago. How he had urged him to bring Atem back, then vanished. It felt odd to think of that now, to remember the trust he had put into Yugi and Atem, how he had been sure they would be able to stop Aigami and set the world right. He had been right, of course. He was always right.

‘Thank you for your trust,’ Atem said across from him, a wistful smile on his face. He must have seen the same vision.

‘I knew you couldn’t resist saving the day.’

‘Don’t hide behind your snarky remarks, Kaiba, we both know there is more to you than that.’

‘Whatever. Blue-Eyes, attack his Dark Magician.’ But of course, there was a trap card and a counter-attack and they were back to focus on their cards.

 

It did not take long after that. Seto had been able to do some damage to Atem’s life points, when the latter attacked again – and gave Seto the opportunity to activate his spell card. Suddenly, they both found themselves on the ground as their life points hit zero at the same time. The strange flicker of images disappeared, and they were left alone in the throne room once again. Seto felt startled. What had happened? As he looked up, he realised that the pharaoh had activated a spell card of his own, increasing his attack points at the last moment so that not only his Blue-Eyes would be defeated but Seto’s life points would be crushed. And since his own spell card had caused Atem to lose the doubled amount of life points, the pharaoh was now also defeated. Was that even possible?  
‘It seems we end this in a draw,’ Atem said as he stood up, a small smile playing on his lips as he dusted some sand of his trousers.

‘This is impossible. How could this happen?’

‘You have gotten better, I have to admit. Yet you still underestimate me and cannot beat me.’ The pharaoh’s smile was growing now, and he took a step towards Seto, extending a hand so the other might get up as well. ‘It appears we are equals.’

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ He got up without the offered hand, unsure how it would feel and afraid Atem might disappear like his memories.

‘It means, Seto Kaiba, that you and I are both talented duellists. It also means that you still haven’t beaten me. What will you do now? Do you mean to continue challenging me until you win?’

This was not how it had been supposed to end. The only option had been winning, then going back. Would he challenge him again, right now? Would that mean staying here until he won? Could he suggest a best of out three? No. All these options spoke against his instincts. But what else would he do, would they do. There wasn’t any ‘they’ at all, it was just the pharaoh in his afterlife who’d been disturbed to fight a duel. Seto found himself staring at the ground, pondering his options. There was no real option, this was just odd. And the duel had been so odd in itself, with all those memories and their connections, like two threats intertwining over the course of time, separating and meeting again. How was he supposed to make sense of all this?

When he looked up again, Atem was sitting on the steps of his dais again, watching him with a careful expression. ‘Have you made up your mind as to what was the reason you have come here?’

‘To duel you,’ was all he could say.

‘And so you did. But you haven’t defeated me. Your plan hasn’t worked and now you are unsure if this had even been your plan. You’re in doubt because what has driven you has turned out differently than expected.’

‘Stop analysing me,’ Seto spat out between gritted teeth. He did not like it when people pointed out the obvious, and he disliked it even more when they knew about his thoughts.

‘Then maybe you should start analysing yourself.’ Atem leaned back on the steps, looking like he was utterly relaxed. ‘I have no rush to be anywhere, this is my afterlife after all.’

A thought struck Seto. What if… ‘Could you come back?’ The question felt like a clue to the answer for why he was here.

‘With you?’

‘With me.’

He took a step towards the dais, mustering the older man. Atem had always seemed different to him, different from Yugi, different from anyone else. He was so sure of himself, extremely powerful and yet ready to help those in need. Self-assurance and power Seto knew, but Atem’s kindness was something he couldn’t quite comprehend. The pharaoh always seemed to know an answer, to be one step ahead of him, just as he was sitting one step above him now. He looked into his eyes that were fixated on Seto’s own face. Deep purple eyes – how could someone have purple eyes? Maybe there used to be more people with purple eyes in ancient times. His age had never appeared odd to Seto. It had been part of the challenge. If he could beat someone who had been there for the start of the game that they now called Duel Monsters, he would be the best. And that had always been his aim: to beat the pharaoh so he might show everyone that he was the best. Now that he hadn’t… could there be anything else to his bond with Atem than just rivalry as duellists?

. 

‘Do you think the answer is that I am here to bring you back?’, Seto asked cautiously. He was already making calculations in the back of his mind, thinking about how he would set the pod to go back to the presence (whatever that was). The pod was designed for one person, how would the pharaoh fit in? And if Atem was to be back in Domino, would he continue to live with Yugi? Was it even possible to go back? Mokuba had been scared for him and he had dismissed it easily, but it had never been a thought that had occurred to him. He had been determined to come here, not to leave again.

‘Do you mean to say that your purpose was to bring me back from the dead?’ Atem had gotten up again and they were standing very close to each other now. Seto looked down into his face.

‘I suppose I am.’

Atem only laughed at him, a good-humoured, happy laugh but nonetheless one that startled Seto. What was he up to? Why would he suggest that there was a different reason for Seto’s presence here than duelling him, and then mock him for bringing this up? Uncertainty and frustration rose in Seto as he wondered what the pharaoh’s intention might be.

‘You appear to be the most oblivious and stubborn person in all the world,’ Atem replied with a widening smile.

‘What is that supposed to mean?’ Seto answered, anger boiling up in him now, and he was cut off by Atem’s lips on his just as he was about to suggest another duel to settle their dispute. His eyes opened wide in surprise and shock as he gripped Atem’s arms and pushed him off. Time seemed to stand still as they looked at each other, an arm’s length between them. The first thing Seto realised was that he had succeeded in touching the pharaoh, that he could feel his body’s warmth underneath his hands. When he looked into Atem’s eyes, he found the other man smiling at him almost shily now, questioning. None of them spoke.

Why had Atem kissed him? The thought of kissing another person had never in his whole life occurred to Seto. He’d always found it a terrible waste of time when people fell in love, vowed to spend their whole life together, only cared about their partner and not about what was really important. It had never been an option for him to like someone, yet alone love. The only person in his life was Mokuba. – And the pharaoh. He had always cared about duelling him, and he had enjoyed their time together. But that didn’t mean… Seto focused on Atem’s eyes again, how they shone full of affection and how his smile seemed to lighten up his face. He had never seen him like that, or maybe his own view had changed.

Slowly, Seto leaned his head towards Atem’s, checking in with the other’s eyes after every move, wanting to be sure he wouldn’t ridicule himself. The pharaoh just continued to smile at him, then raised an eyebrow in a mix between mock and what could only be called flirtation. Their lips met again. This time, Seto was expecting the surprise that came with the touch. He tried to let Atem lead him into this strange new territory and soon found himself emerged in a strange new world that only consisted of the two of them. Their lips slid together with the most beautiful friction, growing more forceful and barely leaving room to breathe. Atem had tangled one hand into Seto’s hair and was gently pulling him down, his other arm holding their bodies together. Seto held his hands firmly around the other man’s waist, unsure but unwilling to let go. There was nothing but them.

When Atem pulled back, Seto chased his lips for a moment before realising how weak this must seem. That thought threw him back to the world of his thoughts and he wondered if he had done something wrong, if he had been alright in doing … this. The smile on Atem’s face seemed to tell him that all was well, yet there was no logical explanation for what had just happened. His mind was spinning.

Finally, the pharaoh spoke: ‘I thought you knew, Seto.’ He tucked a stray strand of hair behind Seto’s ear affectionately, caressing his cheek as he retreated his hand. ‘When you said how you had your bond with me, when you came here. I was sure you had realised we were more than opponents in a duel.’ His voice carried a tenderness Seto had never heard, lulling him.

‘I had not. How did you …?’

‘…know how you felt? I have witnessed a fair share of people falling in love, so I was fairly sure. And I think I know you well enough now.’ Atem smiled and Seto felt overwhelmed, full of this new-found feeling inside of him. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Atem’s lips. When he answered with a small laugh, he couldn’t help but join in, winding his arms even closer around Atem and burying his face in the other’s neck. It was unreal. Yet so unreal that he could not put it down to any digital simulation.

‘Will you come back with me now?’ Seto’s voice was muffled by Atem’s neck but he still seemed to hear him, answering with a low chuckle that Seto could feel reverberating in his body. He couldn’t help but smile.

‘I will come back with you.’

 


End file.
